home network storage...what do you recommend?

jjojjas
jjojjas Posts: 346
edited November 2007 in The Crudcatcher
I have a pc upstairs with all my photos/mp3 etc on it. Its wired to a netgear b/band router. I access the web (usually) from downstairs on the lap top "wirelessly".
What I want is some stand alone hard drive that stays on by itself that I can access from any computer via my wireless router. I also want to plug a printer into my router to use from any computer also.
Thats the idea!
How do I do it? What printer and storage drive do you rekon is worth looking at?
I'd like to do the whole lot for £300, but I can stretch to more.
500gb to 1terra thingy in size and a printer that scans and does photos would be a bonus, not bothered about card reader ones.
Go easy with techy answers, I'm at the limit of my pc knowledge just typing this out :wink:
Jas
it looks a bit steep to me.....

Comments

  • mistercrabb
    mistercrabb Posts: 61
    what would you want a terabyte for? :P
    I have 150gb on my family computer, we're only using about 50gb together.

    Im not experienced with networks, but this might be good:
    http://reviews.cnet.com/external-hard-drives/western-digital-essential-netcenter/4505-3190_7-31415131.html

    It seems to have connections for printers.

    Alternatively, you could just use your upstairs pc to store stuff on wirelessly. Though you would have to leave it on all the time.
  • mossycp
    mossycp Posts: 233
    You need a NAS device such as one of these http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=1204& and a print server such as one of these http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=1215&

    You can buy any old all in one printer to plug into the print server.

    Don't forget that you will need to backup the data on the NAS on a regular basis. Personally I would find it easier to store the files on one of the PC's and just share the drive so the other PC's can see it. You have to remember to switch the PC on that has the data but you would have to have the NAS on all the time anyway. I keep all my files on the laptop and back them up to a portable USB hard drive which is much cheaper and easier.
    Today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way {Dr Seus}
  • Thantos
    Thantos Posts: 533
    As said above, you will need a print server for the printer.
    Printer. WHsmith have a HP printer in at the moment that prints and scans and photocopies for £39.99. You could get it cheaper on the internet.
  • jjojjas
    jjojjas Posts: 346
    8)
    cool, cheers peeps, I'll look into the wester digital 1tb thing.
    jas
    it looks a bit steep to me.....
  • Jaba666
    Jaba666 Posts: 69
    If your netgear router has a RJ45 ethernet socket then try one of these...

    http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Qu ... nKey=11157

    I am currently using 2 of these, 1 x Iomega 500GB storecentre and 4 x 320gb Seagate USB drives and a Seagate SnapSever 2200. Of these the Western Digital 1TB drives are by far the best yet.
    Click To See My Current Stable
  • chrisjsmith
    chrisjsmith Posts: 280
    I've got a router/firewall/gateway/NAS/web/mail server in one machine. Bought a 1U IBM Dual P3 server with 2x 73Gb RAID1 SCSI disks off ebay for £80 (inc postage!). It's got a Draytek 2800G wireless ADSL router (ebay £120) attached to it and a VS160 DLT tape drive (ebay £65) and lives in the airing cupboard. I chucked Ubuntu Linux on the server but it'd do fine with XP/2003 server on it.

    Added bonus: it keeps the towels all toasty as well.

    Comment about 150Gb being enough - I agree. 15 years (!) of my work totals to 900Mb (mainly source code) and the rest is media (41Gb) which is recoverable from the original media (!) if required.

    Leeching whores.

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